This was the first separate map of Virginia. Drawn by John White, it appeared in Thomas Harriot’s A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia in Vol. 1 of Theodore de Bry’s Great Voyages in 1590. As an explorer, surveyor,…

Jacques Le Moyne’s map and forty-two of his illustrations of Timucua Indian life in Florida appeared in De Bry’s work. The experiences of le Moyne paralleled and then intersected with that of John White. In 1564 Le Moyne sailed as an…

Captain John Smith displayed in words and pictures his heroic exploits in Virginia. This account of his capture of Indians and their capture of him along with his rescue by Pocahontas made him the first legendary figure in American history. The map…

Leading cartographic scholar Philip Burden labeled Smith’s work, “One of the most important printed maps of America ever produced.” In 1608, the second year of the colony, Smith led an expedition to reconnoiter the interior and to find food.…

The bold and arrogant John Smith, who emblazoned his portrait on his map, had no intention of retiring from his life of adventure after leaving Jamestown. He envisioned creating his own colony to the north of Virginia, a more realistic, better…

The director of the Dutch West Indies Company, Johannes de Laet, and the company’s chief cartographer, Hessel Gerritsz, collaborated in producing and publishing early maps of the New World. This depiction of the southeastern region of North America…

Always known as Lord Baltimore’s map, this is the first depiction of Maryland as a separate colony. Two “adventurers” among the first colonizers, Jerome Hawley and John Lewger, probably drew the map. They obviously used John Smith’s map; the…

The primary source for this work was a map produced by Adrian Block in 1614. Working for fellow fur traders within the Dutch West India Company, Block explored and mapped the coast between Cape Cod and Manhattan. His was the first map to show…

Herman Moll’s 1729 map of Carolina, which is known as the Azilia Map, contains only a little more information about this region than what appeared on his 1720 “A New Map of the North Parts of America claimed by France . . . .” Both identified…

The first printed map of colonial Georgia, it appeared in two states or versions. The map shown above is a contemporary reproduction and enlargement of the second state. Benjamin Martyn as secretary to the Trustees of Georgia published two pamphlets…

The precise history of this map, drawn a year after the settlement of Savannah, is shrouded in mystery, but most scholars see the hand of James Edward Oglethorpe, “Georgia’s cartographically astute founder,” as being involved in drawing and…

Benjamin Martyn, the secretary for the Georgia Trustees, published a history of the first nine years of their experiment in social engineering. This volume contained a chronology, reports of the Trustees, letters from James Oglethorpe, and a copy of…